Bruins feel more like themselves entering Game 5 against Canadiens

After Thursday's high-stakes overtime win tied the best-of-7 playoff series at 2-2, the Bruins enter Game 5 on Saturday night with some momentum. Perhaps more important, they enter it with a relatively stable lineup, and the knowledge they played their system better in Game 4 than they had all series.

All even. So is all well? It’s difficult to go that far because all is still not normal with the Bruins. Their top offensive line is stuck in a slump, for starters, and their second defense pairing is in a state of flux.

But as the B’s enter Game 5 of their best-of-7, second-round playoff series against the Canadiens on Saturday night at TD Garden (7, NBCSN, WBZ-FM/98.5) intent on taking a 3-2 lead, they’re riding as much of a high as they have since the series started.

They won’t go so far as to say that Thursday’s 1-0, overtime win was easy to play or watch, but the Bruins do think it’s the closest they’ve come thus far to playing the game their way.

“I thought we got back to playing more of our system,” said center Patrice Bergeron, who was shut out on Thursday after scoring at least a point in seven straight games. “Playing tight and solid defense is definitely part of it, and I thought we did that.

“There’s definitely some more adjustments to be made, but it was a lot more the way we need and should be playing.”

That may not have resulted in the Bruins getting to play with a lead (they’ve been ahead for less than 12 minutes through four games), but they managed to avoid a deficit of any sort – let alone the minimum two-goal holes they faced in Games 1 through 3. The startling defensive lapses that practically invited the Habs to take a 3-0 lead in Game 3 were all but erased in Game 4, and the penalties – and weak penalty-killing – that plagued them in Games 1-2 weren’t an issue.

Improved forechecking, smarter decisions, more determined back pressure and an overall increase in awareness combined to slow the Canadiens down significantly. There was built-in drama, given how high the stakes were, but there was also a fair share of plodding on the ice.

Bring on more of that, say the B’s.

“It’s a tough view out there. There’s not much ice surface to move on,” said defenseman Torey Krug, whose points streak ended Thursday after five games.

“Coming into (Saturday), you’re probably going to see a similar style of hockey game. “We’re coming into the latter part of the series and it’s going to be very similar.”

The Bruins aren’t necessarily shooting for a dull evening. They’d be very excited, for instance, to see the line of Milan Lucic, David Krejci and Jarome Iginla put up some points. They’ve been extremely scarce in this series, with the line a collective 2-3–5 and minus-4. Krejci (0-1–1, minus-2), the two-time NHL playoff scoring leader, has struggled throughout the postseason – no goals, 3 assists, minus-3.

Fortunately for the Bruins, Habs coach Michel Therrien is saying the same about his top line of Max Pacioretty (1 assist, minus-2), David Desharnais (1 assist, minus-1) and what has become a revolving door at right wing through which Thomas Vanek, Brendan Gallagher and Dale Weise have passed.

The B’s can at least claim their four lines are set, with overtime hero Matt Fraser’s success in Game 4 with Carl Soderberg and Loui Eriksson making it possible to reunite Daniel Paille with his Merlot Line long-timers, Gregory Campbell and Shawn Thornton.

There is still the matter of whether Julien will use Matt Bartkowski (2 games, 3 penalties, but plus-2) or Andrej Meszaros (2 games, 2 assists, but slower afoot than Bartkowski) on the second pairing with Johnny Boychuk, but all things considered, the B’s enter Game 5 feeling relatively stable, and upbeat.

“It definitely gives you some momentum to win a game in overtime like that and tying the series,” Bergeron said. “That being said, it’s always about the next game and not getting too high or too low. We’ve talked about that so many times and I think it’s the same thing again.

“It’s all about (Saturday’s) game now.”

Mike Loftus may be reached at mloftus@ledger.com. On Twitter.com: @MLoftus_Ledger.